Prediction of three social cognitive-motivational structure types

Previously, using interviews from Baumrind's longitudinal study, three cognitive-motivational structures (CMSs) were predicted in 68 adolescents from caregiving settings and from the CMS types of their mothers, based on the mothers' interviews elicited six years earlier. CMS theory proposes that during Piaget's Concrete Operational Period care-receiving influences the child's adoption of a social cognitive style, which corresponds to one of Piaget's stages of cognitive development. One who is classified as an Operational experiences the caregiving setting as tuned to the child's long-term interests, becomes focused on function and control of function and grasps the distinctions between and gradations of social attributes. One classified as future Intuitive experiences the caregiving as insufficient or unreliable and becomes focused on getting and having, and assesses social situations based on current striking dimensions. A person classified as being future Symbolic experiences the caregiving as out of tune with the self or the world, becomes focused on identity and emotional closeness, and may define self or object by a single attribute. This previous study did not distinguish between the influence of caregiving (including mothers' CMS) on the formation of adolescent CMS type and the possible constancy of CMS type from ages 9 to 15 years. The current study was designed to distinguish between these two possibilities, using data from 67 of the same mothers. Mothers' interviews were purged of descriptions of her child's behavior. Another interview was composed of the purged descriptions of child behavior. This was also done for interviews held when the child was 4 and 15 as well as at 9. From interviews with descriptions of child behavior purged, mother's CMS type at the child's age of 4 and 9 yr. agreed with her adolescent's previously assigned CMS type (p<.05), and caregiving setting at 9 years predicted the adolescent's CMS type (p<.05). From interviews composed of descriptions of only the child's behavior, adolescent CMS type agreed with previously assigned adolescent CMS type (p<.01). Findings were consonant with the idea that CMS type formation is influenced at about Age 9 and sufficiently established to be recognized at Age 15.